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COMPOUND HYDRAULIC AIR COMPRESSOR. No. 523,064.

Patented July 17, 1894.

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COMPOUND HYDRAULIC} AIR COMPRESSOR.

No. 523,064. Patented Jul 17, 1894.

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

WILLIAM A. BABOOOK, OF CLEVELAND, OHIO, ASSIGNOR TO THE BISHOP & BABCOOK COMPANY, OF SAME PLACE.

COMPOUND HYDRAULIC AIR-COMPRESSOR.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters me. No. 523,064, dated July 17, 1894. Application filed April 26, 1893. Serial No. 471,869. (No model.)

7 To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that 1, WILLIAM A. BABCOOK, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Cleveland, county of Ouyahoga, and State of Ohio, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Compound Hydraulic Air-Compressors, of which the following is a specification, the principle of the invention being herein explained and the best mode in which I have contemplated applying that principle, so as to distinguish it from other inventions. v

The annexed drawings and the following description set forth in detail, one mechanical form embodying theinvention; such detail construction being but one of various mechanical forms in which the principle of the invention may be used.

In said annexed drawings-Figure I represents a vertical section of my improved compound hydraulic air compressor, the section being taken through the axes of the cylinders and through the axis of the main controlling.

valve chamber; Fig. 11, a vertical section of the compressor, the section being taken through the axes of the cylinders and through the axis of the primary valve chamber; Fig. III, a vertical section,-similar to Fig. I, and illustrating the compressor as having water applied to the under side of the smaller air compressing piston, and Fig. IV, a horizontal section taken through the axis of the main controlling valve chamber.

An air and water cylinder, A, is mounted upon a base, B, and has a valve casing, O,- secured upon its upper end. Another air and water cylinder, D, is mounted upon this valve casing, and an air cylinder, E, of smaller diameter than the two lower cylinders, is mounted upon the top of said second air and water cylinder D. Pistons, F, G and H, reciprocate respectively in the three cylinders A, D and E, and are connected together by piston rods, I and J, so as to all move in unison,said piston rods passing through suitably packed boxes at the ends of the cylinders. An air valve chamber, B, is formed at the lower end of the first air and water cylinder A, and said valve chamber has an air inlet valve, b, and an air outlet valve, b, and is continued, from the air outlet valve, by a channel, K, passing upward parallel with the three cylinders.

The upper or outer end of the second air and water cylinder D, has an air inlet and outlet, (1, rendering said cylinder non-compressing or idle, as far as concerns air compression within it, and the lower or inner end of the air cylinder E, in the form shown in Figs. I and II, has an air inlet and outlet, e.

A valve casing, N, is secured upon the upper or 'outer end of the air cylinder E, and said casing has an air inlet valve, n, which admits air from the air channel K, into the upper end of the air cylinder E. The valve 6 5 case has, furthermore, an air outlet valve, 'rt, which opens to a nipple, 00?, towhich a pipe or other suitable connection may be attached,

forconveying the compressed air to the desired destination.

The bottom of the lower air and water cy1-' inder A, has an upright nipple, b projecting around the air inlet and outlet, so that any small quantity of water, which may leak past the air and water piston in this cylinder, may collect in the bottom of the cylinder without danger of its entering the air passages. The under side or air side of the air and water piston F, is formed cup-shaped, as indicated at F, so as to extend around the upright nip- 8o ple 11 when the piston is at the extreme of its compressing stroke; and the cup-shaped packing of said piston is turned upward, so as to allow accumulated water to be forced upward, past the piston, while,as much as possible,preventiug the actuating water from leaking downward, past the piston.

The valve casing has a main controlling valve chamber consisting of a piston chamber, C, a chamber, C of smaller diameter than said piston chamber, and a chamber, 0 of still smaller diameter. Said chambers are arranged axially, in the order named, and have their adjoining ends opening, one into the other. The middle chamber 0 has an an- 5 nular port channel, 0, surrounding it, which channel communicates with the interior of the chamber through an annular port formed by an annular series of holes or by an annular slot, and with the inner end of the second I00 air and water cylinder D, through a channel,

c. The smaller chamber 0 has. an annular horizontal, having its base upon one end of the valve casing, as well as vertical, the terms in-stroke and out-stroke, and inner and outer, are employed as referring to the relations of the parts to the valve casing.

A primary valve chamber, is formed in the valve casing, parallel to the piston "rod bearing in the same, and has its ends Within the ends of the two air and Water cylinders;

The primary valve chamber has an annular port channel, a, which communicates with the outer end of the valve piston chamber 0', 1 through a channel, 0 an annular port channel,c", at one side of said other port channel 0 and communicating through a channel, 0 with the inner end of the piston chamber'C', and through the latter 'with the inlet 0 for the .actuatingfluid; and a port channel, 0 ,1 which communicates with the outer GIlClOff the middle chamber 0 through a channel, 0 and through said chamber withthe outlet 0 for the actuating fluid. The port channel at. is a distributing port to the outerend of the valve piston chamber, and the port channels 0 and c are, respectively an inlet port and an outlet port for the primary valve chamber.

A primary valve, L, slides in the primary valve chamber, and has the ends of its steinprojecting out through stufiing boxes in the ends of the valve chamber, into the two air and water cylinders, so as to be alternately? shifted by the pistons therein striking the ends of the valve stem. The valve has two pistons,l and Z, one of which, Z, is perma-f nently to one side of the inlet port, and the other one, Z, shifts to the opposite sidesof the distributing port, sothat said port may alternately be connected to the inlet-port and tojthe outlet port.

A main controlling valve, M, slides in the. main controlling valve chambenand has a large actuating piston, m, inthe piston chamber, a smaller valvepiston, m, inthe chamber 0 and a still smaller piston, m in the smallerchamber C The actuating pistonis reciprocated by the action of the actuating? fluid, and the valve pistons shift to both sides of the annular ports. k

In describing the action of the compressor, the parts will be assumed to be inthe rela-; tive positions illustrated in the drawings, when the actuating Water is ad mittedthrough the inlet,the inlet having been suitably con-- nected to a water service pipe or other source I of water under pressure, andthe outlet hav-"j ingbeen connected to a suitable waste pipe or other means for receiving or conveying the waste water. The position of the primary valve in Fig. II, connects the outer end of the piston chamber of the main controlling valve with the water inlet, which enters the inner end of said piston chamber, as seen in Fig.

IV, and thereby communicates with channel cZ'causing the actuating water to shift said valve from the position illustrated in fulllines in Figs. I, III and IV, to the position illustrated in dotted lines in said figures. The inlet water, which had heretofore passed through the smaller valve chamber, the port channel around thelatter, and the channel from said port channel, into the first air and Water cylinder, depressing the three pistons, will now flow through the middlevalvechamber, the annular port channel around the same, andthe channel from said portchannel, into the second air andwater cylinder, raising the pistons. When the primaryvalve isagain shifted bythe ascent ofthepistons, the main controlling valve will again be shifted back to the position illustrated in fulllines inthe drawings,and"the operation willthus be repeated as longas the inletwater is admitted. 'The'shifting of the main valve, caused by the primary valve 'alternately connecting the outer endof the actuating piston chamberto-the inlet'and 'to the waste, shifts the main controllingvalve, and when one air and water cylinder is connected to the inlet,by means-of said valve,the other cylinder will be connected to thethe outlet, andvice versa. As the pistons are reciprocated, the air and water piston in the first cylinder A, will'draw in air at its in-stroke, and will expel air atits out-stroke. The air compressed by the piston in the first air and water cylinder will pass up 'throughthe vertical connecting channel, K, into the upperend of the third 'and smaller air 'cylinder E; the piston in the same drawingthe air intothe cylinder,-being on its in'stroke. When the pistons have finished the abovementioned stroke,the water valves will be shifted, and water will beexhausted from the inner portion ofthe air andwater cylinder A, and will be admitted into the inner portionof the second air and water cylinder D, forcing the piston in said cylinder outward, expelling air from the outer portion of saidcylinder, and causingthe air compressing piston H, in the air cylinder to further compress thecompressed air contained in the said air cylinder.

Asthearea of the air compressing'piston H, andthe cross sectional area of the air compressing cylinder-E, are smaller than the area of the airandwater *piston G, which drives said air compressing piston, it is obvious'that the air which has'been drawn and forced into the air compressing cylinder, and which'has already received a degree of compression proportionate to the actuating water pressure, will-receive an increased degree of compression,by the same water pressure, corresponding to the relative proportions of the areas of the water actuated piston G, and the air compressing piston H.

When the air compressor is first put in operation, and is connected to a suitable receptacle for compressed air, the greater portion of the air compressed by the lower air and water piston, will pass directly ,into the re-' ceptacle; but, when the air pressure in said receptacle equals the pressure created by said lower cylinder, the air compressed in said cylspread against the inn er sides of the cylinder by the pressure of the actuating water, a certain amount of leakage cannot be avoided, and the construction of the packing, the under side of the piston, and the air outlet in the bottom of the cylinder is such, that it will admit of the accumulated leakage water being forced back, past the piston. The accumulated water will be prevented from passing ing into the outlet pipe by the nipple forming the end of said pipe, and when a quantity of water has accumulated in the bottom of the cylinder, the pressure of the compressed air in the bottom of the cylinder'will force the accumulated water upward, around the edge of the cup-shaped under side and past the upturned packing of the piston, at that moment when the inner or upper portion of the lower air and water cylinder is opened to the waste, but before the piston has started upon its upward str0ke,-the friction of the pistons and piston rods, respectively in the cylinders and packings, retarding the reversal of the stroke for a moment, when this forcing out of the leakage water takes place.

The inner or lower end of the air compressing cylinder E, maybe suitably connected',-= as disclosed in Fig. IlI,-to the valve mechanism, so that water pressure may be also applied to the piston of said air compressing cylinder, and I do not deem it necessary to more specifically describe such form or its operation, as it simply involves duplication of the water connection for cylinder D, extended and applied to cylinder E, and the action of said form isotherwise similar to that above described.

Other modes of applying the principle of my invention may be employed for the mode herein explained. Change may therefore be made as regards the mechanism thus disclosed,provided the principles of construction set forth respectively in the following claims are employed. 7

Itherefore particularly point out and distinctly claim as my invention- 1. In a hydraulic air compressor, the combination of two co-operating air and water cylinders having air inlets and outlets, an air compressing cylinder of a smaller diameter than the air and water cylinders and connected to co-operate with the latter, and an air channel connecting the air outlet of an air and water cylinder with the air inlet of said smaller air compressing cylinder, substantially as set forth.

2. In a hydraulic air compressor, the combination of an air-compressing air and water cylinder, a non-compressing air and water cylinder, and an air compressing air cylinder of smaller diameter than said cylinders, connected pistons in said cylinders, and an air channel between the air compressingportion of the compressing air and water cylinder and of the air cylinder, substantially as set forth.

3. In a hydraulic air compressor, the combination of an air and water cylinder having valved air inlet and outlet at its outer end and water inlet and outlet at its inner end, an air and water cylinder arranged in axial alignment with said other cylinder and having air inlet and outlet at its outer end and water inlet and outlet at its inner end,valve mechan ism controlling the water inlets and outlets, an air cylinder of smaller diameter than the two cylinders and arranged in axial alignment with the same and having valved air inlet and outlet at its outer end, connected pistons in the cylinders, and an air channel connecting the air outlet of the first air and water cylinder to the air inlet of the air cylinder, substantially as set forth.

4. In a hydraulic air compressor, the combination with a vertical air and water cylinder having an upright nipple formed at the air outlet in the bottom of the cylinder, of a piston in said cylinder, having water at its upper side and air at its under side and formed with an upwardly turned cup-packing and with a cup-shaped under side, substantially as set forth.

'In testimony that I claim the foregoing to be my invention I have hereunto set my hand this 24th day of April, A. D. 1893.

w. A. BABCOCK.

IIO 

